John and the Ten Survivors
by MaceWindovahkiin117
Summary: John-117 isn't the only Spartan to survive Reach, and the Covenant just got a whole lot more angry. Just to specify, this is a crossover of Halo: Reach, the game, and Halo: The Fall of Reach, the book, and Halo: The Flood, the book. This will make a lot more sense if you've read/played those. Also, this passage contains some mild adult language, but isn't quite rated M.
1. Chapter 1

_Victor watched as John, Kelly, and Sam exited the dropship. He had an odd feeling, but couldn't quite place the source. He waited, though. He saw Kelly fall from the ship, and suddenly had to resist the urge to stop her. The feeling was growing, and he knew that if he didn't act, this would be the last he saw of the three of them._

 _"Alright, Spartans, one hour to dirt." Their sergeant said. "We're the advance team, and the other four dropships will join us tomorrow. Let's take Reach back from these Cove-" Victor stood._

 _"Sir, Kelly's about to be killed." The sergeant started to get angry, but calmed down before the feeling could gain a foothold. Spartans were trained to trust their gut, and fight like hell._

 _"Well, go on, then. Open her up, pilot!" The sergeant yelled the last part toward the Pelican cockpit. The rear hatch opened, and Victor dove out after John, Kelly and Sam. He fell toward the Covenant cruiser, and saw that it was about to discharge its weapons. Its energy shields parted, and the plasma burst forth, barely missing the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. Victor neared the gun, and waited for the shields to part again. When they did, he dove, falling through the shields and around the gun before it could fire. A few meters down the Covenant hull was the hole that Pillar of Autumn's MAC gun had punched._

 _Victor climbed inside, seeing Kelly disappear around a corner. He climbed to the doorway and opened it, but the trio of Spartans had already rounded another bend and gone through an airlock. Victor followed them, through corridors, around dead Elites, Grunts, and Jackals, and found the three green-clad Spartans standing next to a broken window with a warhead. Kelly was talking, and Victor could hear that she was crying. After a few moments, Sam took the warhead from John._

 _"There's no time. Not enough of a delay. My suit's punctured anyway. I leave, I die. I stay, I die. There's no way around it." Kelly straightened, and walked away with John. Victor approached Sam. "Fifteen." He said. Victor crept closer, starting to step harder. Sam whirled around, raising his assault rifle. When he saw a Spartan, he relaxed. Then he realized that his armor was gray instead of the usual green, and he tensed again. "What's with the armor?" Sam asked._

 _"Lets me blend in with the shadow. Painted it myself." Victor tried to reassure him with a human voice. Sam had also noticed Victor's weapon of choice. Instead of the fully automatic assault rifle, the gray Spartan held a semi-automatic Designated Marksman Rifle, or DMR. That wasn't the end of the irregularities, though. Instead of the usual 2x scope on the DMR, there was a 5x scope. And instead of the usual M6D pistol, the gray Spartan's sidearm was an old-fashioned UNSC Navy pistol. The gray Spartan also had a long combat knife sheathed on his left forearm. Finally, the Spartan had a dark-tinted visor instead of the normal shiny gold visor. Sam relaxed still, because none of this suggested Covenant. Victor approached more quickly._

 _"Let me see that warhead." Sam handed it over. Then, Victor remembered that Sam's suit was punctured. He slipped a hand into a pouch and pulled out a strip of leather. He laid it over Sam's wound, and pulled out a small device. He slipped the device into a slot in the leather strip, and flipped a switch. The device pulled the leather out until a vacuum was made, and it sucked the strip back. Now, Sam's suit was sealed. Victor took the device back and flipped the switch on the warhead._

 _"Nobody to hold off," he said, "so run." The pair took off running, and knew that their three minutes would soon be up. Finally, they reached the twisted metal hole that_ Pillar of Autumn's _MAC gun had punched. They jumped out through the firing hole in the cruiser's shields._

 _"Close your eyes!" Victor shouted, realizing that he had subconsciously counted the delay on the warhead's detonation. Just in time, he clamped his eyes shut. The Covenant cruiser exploded._

Victor woke up. The memory was a good one, so it wasn't a jolting awakening, but rather a slow, gentle one. Sam had been from mission to mission, though, and Kelly and John still thought he was dead. 27 years, and neither Spartan knew that Sam hadn't been fried in the belly of the cruiser. John, for his part, had also been from mission to mission. In fact, he was about to launch in a Pelican with Spartans Linda and James. They were going to take space station Gamma orbiting the planet Reach, which would be a good start to take the planet back from the Covenant. In fact, Victor was going with them, although they didn't know it.

He stepped into his suit, deactivating the security system and turning on the HUD. Immediately, his motion sensors showed him a white arrow, him, and several clusters of yellow pings, which would be other UNSC troops. He flipped his comms to the Master Chief's frequency, and listened as he briefed Linda and James.

"James, your job is to reactivate the MAC gun. Then use it on those cruisers. We can't have them glassing Reach. Believe it or not, this one station could make the difference." John's voice crackled over the comms. "And Linda, you'll be with me on cleanup."

"Aw," Linda joked, "Do I have to clean the station? It's awful big." Victor ran toward the docking station that they were at, and found them loading into the Pelican. He climbed into his own Pelican, painted black to blend in with the black, cold infinity of space. He took off before them, to make sure they didn't know they were being followed. He turned a few laps, then started following the green drop-ship as it emerged from _Pillar of Autumn._ Before Victor knew it, the Pelican he was following was nearing the station, but it wasn't slowing down. Sam approached from the back of Victor's Pelican.

"I knew you'd follow them." Victor wasn't surprised.

"I knew you'd follow me." Suddenly, a voice came over Victor's comms.

"We're coming in too fast."

"We could stop, but then we'd be off course." Linda put in. "We'd have to be able to stop in less than five seconds, which is impossible with these modifications." The Pelican didn't slow. They would have missed the station had that happened. Instead, they simply crashed into it, greasing several Covenant troops.

"I need to help the Spartans on Reach." Victor told Sam, and left no room for objections. "I may see you again, I may not." And Victor leaped out the back of the Pelican, shooting toward Reach at high speeds.

Then, he slowed down. He wasn't going to make it in time to do anything. Suddenly, a MAC round tore through space, shattering a nearby Covenant cruiser's shields. Victor saw an opportunity. A second round punched a hole in the cruiser, and Victor could see the power core. He ripped the warhead from his back and primed it, throwing it like a football into the hole. It detonated right next to the power core, and the entire ship was destroyed. The explosion propelled Victor through space and toward Reach. He fired his thrusters, and tore toward the planet fast enough that he would burn up upon entry into the atmosphere. Just as he was about to do so, he turned the direction of his thrusters, then disabled them altogether. He neared the ground, where he drained his thrusters to slow his descent, then dropped them into a ravine. He locked his armor, then landed inside a ring of Spartans.

When Victor stood, he saw that he was surrounded by five Spartans. One had dark blue armor and held a DMR. The second was large, held a Warthog turret, and had green and yellow armor. The third was dressed in silver armor and held an assault rifle. The fourth had green armor on with a bit of red trim, and held a shotgun. His visor reached from his chin to his scalp, and was shiny gold with a smiling skull on the front. He had a kukri on his right shoulder. The last was dressed in a darker green armor, and had a green netting draped around him. He had a marksman helmet and a sniper rifle.

"Who are you?" The blue Spartan said.

"I am Victor, Spartan oh-sixty-three." Without any warning, Sam slammed feet-first into the ground next to Victor. "Oh," Victor continued, "And, apparently, Sam, Spartan... oh... thirty-four?" Sam laughed, in spite of the moment.

"Not even close, Vic."

"Well," the blue-clad Spartan said. "I'm Carter, Noble One of our Noble team. That," Carter pointed at the sniper, "is Jun, Noble 3. Emile, Noble 4," was the skull-visored one with the kukri, "Jorge, Noble 5," was the large one, "and Six. Noble 6," was the silver-armored one.

"Six doesn't get a name?" Victor joked. "And where...?" Victor almost asked about Noble 2, but then realized that he must have died.

"No, Six doesn't get a name." Carter was unamused. Victor got one of his feelings again. He dove to the left, tackling Sam and Jorge, and a fuel rod flew over where they had just been. They looked up, and saw that sixteen Elite Zealots were gathered in a group. Four had fuel rod guns, and the other twelve had energy swords. They growled.

One spoke, and Victor was surprised to hear calm English from that wretched maw. "Attack."

The swordsmen surged forward around the ones with the fuel rod guns. They weren't done, though. The sixteen had been on a hill, and dozens, scores, hundreds poured over the hill with them. Four fuel rods burst forth, flying toward the ring of men. Carter immediately shot one, and it exploded, killing three sword Elites. Victor rolled a grenade forward, pulling out his combat knife as a distraction. When the grenade detonated, it killed all four wielding fuel rod guns. One of the Elites tripped, and his energy sword deactivated and rolled toward Victor. Before he could pick it up, Noble Six leaped from behind a boulder and snatched it, oddly, with his left hand. In his right he clutched a pistol, and, thus equipped, he stormed through the ranks of Elites. Several more energy swords flew from dead hands, and Victor picked one up, tossing his combat knife to Emile. Now, the three Spartans were like whirlwinds, dispatching Elites left and right. Behind them, Sam was emptying clip after clip of M6D bullets. Jorge was firing rapidly into the Elites as well, and Carter was picking off the most threatening. Jun was unseen, but every second or so one to three Elites would fall from one bullet. When Carter had emptied several clips, he dropped his DMR. He picked up Emile's shotgun, instead, and attached an energy sword crossways behind the barrel. When activated, the sword was like a bayonet. After a few minutes, Jorge set down his mini-gun and charged at the Elites fists first. Sam also moved forward, but continued with his dual-wield pistols.

Victor was like a tornado. He swung and leaped and spun through the Elites, chopping, slashing, stabbing, slicing. He must have killed fifty Elites before one smacked him. The side of the energy sword hit him like a ton of bricks. He flew from the hill, falling down the ravine. He locked up his armor, landed, and blacked out.

Victor opened his eyes. He started to move, and turned off his armor lock. It had been draining and recharging for however long he had been unconscious. He looked around of a vehicle, and found, of all things, a bicycle. The brown ravine was flat, though, and the bicycle would allow Victor to move faster. He pedaled along the ravine, found a wall, and turned back. When he reached the other end, he saw a sort of docking platform. There were two MAC guns mounted above it, and Emile was behind one. A Pelican flew over the platform as well, firing down on it. Noble Six, Jorge, and Sam were storming that platform. Jun was out of sight, but Victor knew that he would be sniping from above.

Victor started to roll down the hill on the bicycle, and built up speed twice as fast as his sprint. He saw and angled rock jutting from the red sand and turned toward it. He hit the rock and his bicycle flew in a high, long arc toward the series of platforms. The bike started to lose altitude, and Victor moved slightly to jump off. He continued his arc, checked his HUD, and locked his armor again. Jorge saw the gray-armored Spartan coming down, and threw a brute at him. Victor put his knees to his chest and his feet to the brute, and the opposing forces slowed his descent. Victor tucked his limbs and chin into his chest, rolling as he hit the platform. Even with the brute to slow his fall, the heavy impact of the Spartan dislodged that area of the platforms. Victor leaped to the next section just as the first fell away, taking three brutes and several jackals with it into another nearby ravine.

Emile fired the MAC gun, and the report echoed throughout the ravine-lined canyon. A covenant cruiser exploded, and only one dropship managed to fly safely away from the wreckage. It landed, which would suggest that there were no spare troops to retrieve. Every alien on board got off the ship, and Victor was faced with a few challenges. There were two Jackal snipers, three Elites, and two squads of Grunts. Victor picked up a nearby rifle from a dead Marine, and began firing. The Grunts required only one shot to the head, but that was an entire clip. Victor reloaded with a clip from the Marine, dispatching the two Jackals, then reached for his combat knife.

It wasn't there.

Victor remembered throwing the weapon to Emile, so he reached for another clip. Once again, he came up dry. Everything had come off his person in the fall down the first ravine. He looked up, and found a spare clip flying toward his face. He snatched it out of the air, slammed it into his weapon, and saw that Carter, in a Pelican, had dropped it as he had flown over.

Plasma flew next to Victor's gray visor. He dove into a roll, dodging two more plasma bolts, and came up shooting. When he had exhausted his only clip, he dropped the DMR and charged the remaining two Elites. One dropped its plasma rifle and snatched an energy sword from its belt. Before it could be activated, though, Victor slammed into the Elite, tackling him from the platform. They fell several meters, before the Spartan landed on top of the Elite on a lower platform. He then captured the energy sword, spinning around to find the other Elite had jumped after its companion.

Victor punched the Elite in the gut, and activated the sword at the same time. The twin plasma blades shot through the Elite's gut and out its back. The creature reached for Victor's head, and managed to scratch the front of his helmet before dying. Victor sprinted up a ramp, yearning to reach Emile. He couldn't explain why, but he just wanted to be near Noble 4 for the next few minutes. When he reached the top floor, he saw Carter's Pelican crash into the ground, destroying several sections of platform and exploding. Just before it slammed into the platforms, though, Victor saw Jun, sitting in the back with his sniper rifle. Time had seemed to slow down, and Jun had raised his left hand and flipped up his middle finger. Victor stopped, and physically fell to his knees. Jun and Carter dead, in a second. Victor looked around, and saw that Jorge, Sam and Six were still alive, but Emile was still gnawing at Victor's mind. Suddenly, Victor's long-dead comms came back on.

" _Spartan down! Spartan down! They're destroying-"_ Static. Victor, suddenly horrified, flipped to a different frequency. Screaming and static. The next three frequencies were no different, until he reached John-117's frequency.

" _Linda! James! Do you read?"_ Victor started to panic again, but then an answer came over the frequency.

" _Affirmative, Master Chief. I've got James. He just took out four Elites bare-handed!"_ Victor almost smiled at the thought of four of those beasts being beaten to death by James.

Almost.

"Emile!" Victor accidentally screamed the name over the comms, then quickly adjusted his comms to be able to communicate with the Noble Team. Victor then took off running.

When he reached the MAC gun, he jumped to its level, and found three Elite Zealots sneaking up on Emile.

"Watch it, Four!" Victor called, and Emile immediately spun, shotgun in hand. The first Elite was shredded by the contents of Emile's shotgun shell, and the second was cut in half by Victor's energy sword. The third Victor tried to stab, but he realized that his sword was dead. Instead, he ended up repeatedly punching the Elite, beating it to a pulp while Emile dealt with the last two. Emile didn't deal with the last two, though. The first was killed, but the second tackled Emile, leaving his shotgun to skitter off the MAC platform. Emile pulled out his kukri, but that was thrown to the ground as well. He then drew Victor's combat knife, and Victor could clearly see the filed tick marks on the side of the blade. There were eight, which was the count of how many Covenant Hunters he had killed with the blade. The Elite slapped the combat knife up into the air, and activated his energy sword.

The combat knife flipped end over end, arcing toward Victor. He leaped up, snatched it, and landed on the Elite's back. He shoved the blade under the Elite's ribs, and it made a curious sound.

"Feel that?" Victor asked. The Elite choked. "That's Carter. Jun. That middle finger? That was for you. That's all the Spartans that you've gotten killed. More importantly, though, it's the end of your life, you bastard." Victor hauled the elite into the air and threw it from the MAC platform. He looked at Emile, and was glad to see the Spartan stand. Victor sighed, accidentally keying the intercom.

" _What is it, Victor?"_ Jorge's accent could clearly be heard. Victor dreaded the voice, for some unknown reason. He began to speak, but Jorge beat him to it. " _Hold that thought, Victor. Got to deal with these Hunters."_ Victor stopped dead in his tracks. Jorge was about to be killed by a pair of Hunters.

"No he's not," Victor muttered. He lowered his eyes for Jun, Carter, and Emile for just a moment, but then leaped from the MAC platform, scooping up an energy sword on his way. Two Hunters were flanking Jorge, firing at him. He had dropped his gun, and fallen to the ground, locking his armor. Victor stabbed one Hunter in the back, and its shot went high, blowing off its bond brother's head. Both fell, and Victor saw that he had barely saved Jorge. Suddenly, and Elite dropped onto Jorge. Victor reached back and snatched a pistol he hadn't even known was there and emptied the clip into the Elite's head. It tumbled off of Jorge, barely missing the Spartan with its sword.

"Thanks, Spartan." Jorge stood. "Don't know how I'd have survived any of that without your help." Sam approached from the side, MJOLNIR armor drenched in purple and blue blood, scratched, charred, and dented, but the man himself seemed unharmed. Noble Six approached from behind Victor, reclaiming his pistol, and picked up the Elite's energy sword. Emile approached as well, having retrieved his shotgun. At that moment, a Pelican landed in front of them. Out stepped Carter, Jun, and a light-blue armored female Spartan.

"Kat!" Noble Six spoke for the first time. "How did you survive? Any of you?"

"Well..." Kat said...

 _Kat opened her eyes. She was badly wounded, that was for sure. She had lost blood, but the wound seemed to have been closed. Or perhaps, if it was plasma, cauterized on impact. She stood, and found that, although she hadn't done it, her helmet had been discarded to one side. She picked it up, and only then did she realize she was on a Covenant dropship. Even as she put on her helmet, she heard the warbles and growls of approaching Elites. One had a translator._

 _"Do you think it's awake, yet?" The other one responded, but hadn't his own translator. Then the first one spoke again. "I hope so. Then I can get to the interrogation." Kat snuck around to a position next to the door, and waited for the Elites to get to her cell. They obviously didn't know the capabilities of a Spartan, for she hadn't been restrained in any way. The Elites reached her cell, and one opened the hard light door._

 _"Well,-!" Kat slammed her robotic right fist into the Elite's gut, and snatched his plasma pistol away from his side. With it, she shot the other Elite in the face several times, killing him. She then pivoted, smashed her non-robotic left arm into the nape of the first Elite's neck and killed him via severed spinal cord. Kat then took the second Elite's plasma repeater and snuck from the cell. As soon as she had left, she killed a pair of Grunts. Once she had killed them, she found that she had been held just behind the unloading area for troops. One side opened and troops poured out. The other side wasn't open, though, and she killed the line of Covenant soldiers waiting there. Once they were dead, she hopped to the area as it folded out, and jumped to the ground. She had to kill a few Covenant soldiers on the ground, but then hopped into a Pelican and took off._

 _Carter knew his Pelican was going down. He saw Victor in a melee skirmish with two Elites, saw Jun give the Covenant a middle finger, and dove back into the back of the Pelican. He dropped a bubble shield, but the fire would soon consume it. So, Carter grabbed Jun's arm, and pulled him through the inferno. As soon as they were out, they found themselves falling down the ravine. Suddenly, they landed on top of another Pelican as it flew under their wrecked one. And in the cockpit was Kat._

"How'd you get out of that explosion again?" Victor asked. Carter looked at him.

"A bubble shield and some thrusters." Their comms kicked on.

" _This is Kelly, here with Fred. I need assistance at 045 and 371, over."_ Victor checked their own coordinates.

"That's just west of here." With unspoken consent, the group piled into the Pelican and Kat took off toward the west.

A few minutes later, the Pelican touched down. Two columns of four Spartans filed off, immediately destroying the Covenant force that had cornered Kelly and Fred. The two Spartans emerged from behind some Covenant cargo containers and approached.

"My thanks," Kelly said. "If you didn't come, I'd-" A shadow fell across the group. There was a large Covenant fleet above them.

"We've got to get off Reach." Noble Six said. "They're about to glass it." The ten Spartans immediately boarded the Pelican, and flew off at top speed toward the sky. Just as they passed by the Covenant fleet, it fired. Reach was utterly destroyed, killing off all but the ten Spartans in the Pelican. And, Victor suddenly thought, John. Eleven Spartans left, and one thought he was alone.

When the Covenant was finished destroying Reach, a slip-space rupture appeared. The entire fleet passed through, and, much to the Spartans' surprise, _Pillar of Autumn._ Carter turned and fired all rear thrusters on the drop-ship, propelling it toward the rupture.

"What are you doing?" Kat asked. "Pelicans can't survive slip-space."

"Yes they can." Carter muttered, seemingly just to reassure himself. They hit the rupture, and the ship lost all power. Nothing would work, and the controls shorted out. When the emerged from slip-space, they began drifting.

Everyone went silent with dread. Ten Spartans survived on mostly luck, and now they would die of starvation and thirst before they could even do anything. Suddenly, _Pillar of Autumn_ smashed into them, pushing the Pelican forward. The Spartans looked through the cockpit window and saw a ring. It was larger than most human-inhabited planets in diameter, and had earth-like environments on the inside. Outside was all metal.

"Well, only thing we can do until _Autumn_ gets her power back is sleep." Victor looked around, and fell right over, falling asleep immediately.

"Let's go, Spartans!" Victor awakened for the second time. _Pillar of Autumn_ had crashed on the Halo, as the Spartans had taken to calling it, but the Pelican had continued forward. It was now very far from the larger ship. They had had a Warthog on the bottom of their Pelican, and started driving. The ten Spartans took turns sleeping, and had been traveling across the Halo for a week now, looking for any sign of UNSC life. They hadn't found _any_ life, even Covenant. Now, it seemed, Kat had found something. "Those are UNSC tents on that butte! Let's go!" Victor stood, once again wondering how ten Spartans could fit on just one Warthog. Four were flanking the turret, which Victor was now on, and two were in the seats. The other three had positioned themselves on the back bumper, but they should have been too heavy for the 'Hog to even move. Somehow, though, it moved, and quickly.

When the 'Hog reached the butte, they immediately started up the spiral trail on the outside. When they reached the top, they were pointed to the commanding officer's structure by a wide-eyed Marine. They reached the structure and waited, hearing voices on the inside.

"...Charles Darwin? No, probably not, because he never went to war. Darwin was a naturalist who proposed a theory called 'natural selection.' Simply put, he believed that those species best equipped to survive would do so, while other, less effective organisms would eventually die out.

"That's what happened to the Spartans, Chief: _They died out._ Or will, once you're gone. And that's where the ODST comes in." Victor recognized the name. The ODST were a group of hardcore Marines that dropped into battle in pods and, as they would put it, 'gave 'em hell.' That had earned them the nickname 'Helljumpers.' The commanding officer continued to speak. "It was the Helljumpers who took this butte, son. Not a bunch of augmented freaks dressed in fancy armor."

Emile's anger boiled over. Victor whispered to himself. "Oh, no," as the skull-visored Spartan pushed open the door.

"...dressed in fancy armor." The Chief remembered Linda, James, and all the rest of the seventy-three boys and girls with whom he had learned to fight. All dead, all labeled as "freaks," all dismissed as having been part of a failed experiment. He took a deep breath, and was about to put Major Silva in his place, when someone barged in.

"What is the meaning-" Silva started, then blanched. John didn't spin around, though, as the Major hadn't said, "at ease," yet.

"Freaks, are we?" John hadn't heard that voice since... he couldn't remember. The next voice was just as frustratingly familiar.

"Dead, are we?" The next words spoken made John finally turn. "Do you remember dying, Kelly?" John's normally stone-cold face broke into a relieved grin. Kelly. The girl he had trained with, fought with, lost Sam with. Then, John realized that the second voice was Sam's. When he turned, he saw ten Spartans standing inside the door. He knew all of them by name, thought of them as family. Victor, the marksman, or specialist, or... John never knew what Victor did. Carter, Kat, Jun, Emile, Jorge, and Alex, the whole Noble Team; Sam, Kelly, his closest friends of the group. And Fred, the one who hadn't hesitated to become John's friend after Sam had gone. But then, John thought, Sam hadn't really gone, but had survived somehow.

"No," Kelly said, "I don't remember dying. But if I did, I certainly didn't go to heaven."

"I'm sorry, Spartans. But the truth is-" Silva tried to speak. Victor couldn't have that.

"No, sir, you're not sorry. And the truth is that we survived as Reach got _glassed._ I wouldn't call that a failure. Would you?" Silva nodded.

"I would. Eleven out of seventy-three is a failure. When we push the Covenant back, which I sincerely believe that we will, that victory will be the result of work by men and women like Lieutenant McKay. Human beings who are razor-sharp, metal-tough, and green to the core. Do you read me?" The ten newcomers remembered that Silva outranked them. Just as quickly, they remembered that _they didn't care._

They all, including John, took a deep breath, looked straight ahead, and thundered, "Sir, no sir!" in perfect unison. The Major leaned physically away from the sound, and when he leaned back, silence took over, even outside. Finally, Silva realized that these eleven Spartans could easily assume command at any time.

"I understand. I'll admit, I would be as angry as you if most of the human race were extinct, and dismissed as freaks. I suppose there's nothing I can do. We should get to rescuing Keyes." As one, the eleven Spartans took a knee, and John sat in a chair.

It was time to destroy the Covenant.


	2. Chapter 2

Before I continue this story, anyone who's read the book will have a few questions. As you know, the Master Chief was on a mission to figure out why the Covenant were on Halo during Halo: The Flood. This resulted in Keyes figuring out the location of the object of their searching, and going with a team of Marines. However, in this, the extra Spartans made it possible to work on the Chief's mission, as well as scope out the Forerunner Flood containment structure. Therefore, Keyes and the Marines never made it to the Flood, and weren't able to be controlled by them. The Spartans were split, and one team cleared out the first few Covenant hostiles while the other finished the Chief's mission. They were then reunited, and started their raid.

The Elite finally died, but the Spartan fire team didn't like how difficult it had been to kill it.

They had recaptured Captain Keyes, raided the crashed _Pillar of Autumn_ , and were now on a mission in an old Forerunner structure to find the Covenant's hidden weapon. The Master Chief had briefed them on why the Covenant was here, which was that Halo was a weapon. They were now about to find what that was. There were two fire teams, hastily split when they needed to explore both of a fork in the Forerunner corridor. One of the fire teams consisted of the Noble team, and the other was Master Chief, Kelly, Sam, Fred, and Victor. The Noble team had taken the left fork, and Master Chief's team had taken the right.

Victor had shot the Elite in the head as soon as he saw it, but it hadn't died, courtesy of its energy shields. Master Chief had fired two sustained bursts into the alien's midsection, and it still hadn't gone down. That was when Kelly had approached, fired her shotgun into the Elite's chest, and watched it fly backward into the wall. Then, much to the Spartans' worry, it had pushed itself up, albeit painfully, and fired at Victor. At that point, everyone had had enough. Sam approached, drawing his battle rifle, and buried the muzzle in the Elite's maw, firing thrice. On the way past, Fred had fired his DMR into the Elite's mangled body. The fire team had then rounded a corner, coming across Noble Team, who seemed to be pinned down by numerous enemies. The high-pitched whine of plasma fire echoed through the corridor, and bolts of hot blue energy flew past the six Spartans. Victor dove past the doorway that the plasma was being fired through, and on the way saw that there were only seven hostiles. The rest were dead, but it didn't seem to be from Spartan weapons. He looked around the corner, dispatched an Elite, and reloaded. Master Chief began firing sustained bursts, moving slowly toward the enemy. The other ten Spartans followed him in a loose arrowhead formation, all firing into the Covenant. They fell under the flood of lead, but were immediately replaced by a wave of discolored green-tan blobs. They all had pinkish red tentacles, and were as high as the Spartans' thighs. There were needles protruding from the frontmost tentacles, and those were held upward. Soon, there were dozens, scores, hundreds, even _thousands_ of the creatures, and the needles began looking like a spiky forest on top of rotting hills. The Spartans were forced back, all of them muttering variations on, "What the hell _are_ these things?" before turning, at the Master Chief's order, of course, and running back through the corridors. Victor was the last to turn and run, and, even then, didn't turn. He, the Master Chief, Carter, and Kelly stayed facing the creatures, firing as they backed away.

The bulbous creatures popped, each causing a chain reaction and destroying several more. Finally, Noble Six, whose name, as recently learned, was Alex, turned and rolled a grenade into the flood of creatures. It detonated and destroyed the entire army, but the Spartans were far from satisfied.

"I don't like this," Kat said. Carter turned to her.

"Trust your gut and fight like hell," he said, repeating an old Spartan motto. Victor took the lead, leaving the Master Chief free to watch the flanks. Emile ended up in the back, and worked with Sam to watch the rear. Jorge was near the middle of the rough formation, and stood to the side to free himself up to shoot. Soon, they ran into more Covenant. Victor shot an Elite in the head, and it tipped over backward. That was when they realized that the Covenant was already dead. The Elite had been supported by a dead Grunt's methane pack. They moved through the scene, noting how terribly ravaged and mutilated the bodies were. It seemed that every body that remained was the same, but they could tell that these weren't all of the bodies. Suddenly, a plasma grenade hurtled out of the darkness. It landed on Jorge and stuck there, not moving.

"Lock your-" Victor tried to shout, but Jorge had already overloaded his energy shields. The grenade detonated, and set off Jorge's alarms, but the armor lock saved him. Nobody had time to be relieved, though, as more tentacled creatures flooded out of a dark passageway. Kelly stepped forward, showering the things with shotgun shells, and Jorge fired his mini gun into them. They were destroyed quickly, but the Spartans, once again, weren't satisfied. A presence was there, looming over the Spartans, and they all knew that these grotesque bulbs hadn't thrown the grenade. As one, the eleven super-soldiers opened fire into the passage, and were rewarded with several wet thuds and soft growling. Six more tentacled creatures crawled out of the shadows, but Kelly easily dispatched them with a single shotgun shell. They moved through the passageway, and the ground lurched under them. They had reached a lift. It was ascending rapidly, and they soon found themselves in the large crypt they had started in. The team moved out of the structure into the swamp, and the Chief did a swift head count. Everyone was there, so they moved out again.

"Foehammer!" Alex said over his radio. The reply was instant.

" _Uh-huh?"_ The female Pelican pilot responded, and her bird appeared through the mist.

"Pickup. You see us?"

" _Hard to miss a rainbow of Spartan armor, now isn't it?"_ The Pelican landed in front of the team, a Marine on the turret and a sniper at his back.

Something lurched out of the swamp.

The sniper was ripped from his position behind the machine-gunner, and several green-tan blobs rose from the water. These weren't the spidery bulbs, though, but were roughly humanoid. Scraps of Elite armor could be seen, and each had an Elite head protruding from it somewhere. There were tentacles and protrusions, and several had large humps on their backs. A few carried covenant weapons, and a few simply battered at the sniper. Once he was dead, the creatures turned on the Spartans. Kelly dispatched one for every shell, and the Master Chief could kill two with a clip. Victor, Carter and Fred's DMRs could kill four per clip, but they seemed to be endless. Jorge finally stepped in, and destroyed the last of them.

"Well," the Marine gunner said. "Any idea what they are?"

"Not good." the Master Chief said simply. The gunner nodded, and the Spartans boarded. Foehammer took off, and just in time. Three more of the humanoid creatures rose from the swamp, and one jumped toward the rising ship. In an amazing display of accuracy, Kat stepped forward and emptied a clip into the creature's chest. There was a pop, and the Spartans realized that a bulbous form had been inside. It seemed that the Spartans' suspicions were correct. The bulbs found hosts, infected them, and made them into a sort of fighter. The creature died, tumbling back into the murky waters. The other two looked up after the Pelican, but didn't jump. Emile dropped a grenade between them.

"See you in hell," he muttered. Suddenly, another form appeared in a tree next to the Pelican. It leaped, landing next to the gunner. It slammed a tentacled appendage into the gunner's back, sending him into the swamp. In then spun, sweeping Carter over the edge as well. Emile shot it in the chest, and watched it fly. The other Spartans had already sprung into action. Kat had dove over the edge after Carter, with Jun close behind. He had dove after her, grabbing her ankles, and Alex grabbed his. Jorge brought up the rear, holding up all four falling Spartans. Carter, for his part, had spread out his limbs and slowed his descent so that Kat could catch him. They were all pulled back into the Pelican, and everyone safe. When Carter was returned to the Pelican, he manned the turret. The Marine was already lost. If they had made a second Spartan chain, it would have flipped the Pelican and dumped them all into the swamp. The bird had banked sharply to one side with the one chain as it was.

Victor looked up and saw movement in some of the taller trees. "Faster, Foehammer!" He shouted. "We ned to clear the trees!" On that note, four more fighters jumped onto the Pelican, pushing Carter off again. Kat, Jun, and Alex dove, Jorge grabbing Alex's ankles, while Emile dispatched the fighter that had knocked Carter down. Master Chief shoved his assault rifle into one's chest and fired until it flew from the Pelican. As a reflex, Victor kicked one that had landed in front of him. As it fell, it snatched Carter's legs and wrenched the Spartan from Kat's grasp. She yelled, suddenly feeling helpless. The blue-armored Spartan landed, and was instantly flooded with the bulbous forms. Victor then turned and ripped the last bulb form out of the last fighter and popped it, letting the fighter roll from the Pelican. They cleared the trees then, and all was well. There was a shadow over the day, however. Carter was now infected, probably mostly braindead. Kat sat in the middle of the Pelican, looking at her boots, and Victor knelt in anguish. He had been responsible for Carter's death, as he had dropped the live fighter that dragged him into the swamp. He should have killed it first, or at least-

"It's not your fault."

Victor looked up, and saw Kat standing next to him. "I could have killed it first. I-"

"It's not your fault," Kat repeated.

"But it is! I dropped a live hostile toward my ally, and it caused his death."

"No!" Kat wouldn't have it. "You dropped a hostile, live or not, away from a transport full of allies, and Spartans, no less. The fact that he took Carter with him was in no part because of you. It was because of these... these..."

"Flood?" a machine-like voice provided. A small floating machine appeared in the Pelican. "Yes. They're called the Flood." It started to ramble. "The infection forms are commonly called, as I understand it, Flood Spiders. The combat forms are the True Flood, and there are carrier forms called, well, Carriers. Then there are the stalker forms, but they're-"

"What are you?" Master Chief asked.

"I am 343 Guilty Spark, of course." The machine acted as if they should have already known that. It started to float around, examining each Spartan closely. After a few, he stopped. "Which one of you is the Reclaimer?" The Spartans looked at it, uncomprehending. Suddenly, the Master Chief reached up and snatched the robot out of the air, plugging in a data chip they all knew as the AI Cortana. He removed it after a moment. Guilty Spark, if it was possible, seemed to huff.

"What disrespect! You cannot be the Reclaimer!"

Cortana spoke over the comms. "He plans to use Halo's weapon to get rid of the Flood." Guilty Spark seemed to hear it.

"Yes, of course. But not get rid of the Flood, get rid of their prey."

The Spartans erupted.

"You plan to kill all sentient life in the universe?"

"You're killing everything _but_ the Flood?"

"Why couldn't we just destroy the Flood?"

Guilty Spark floated backward from the flying Pelican. "Now, now. Don't be hasty. All I need is for one of you to get the Index so that I can destroy the Flood's prey and make them die out."

"No, we're not. And you're not." Emile threw a captured plasma grenade at the robot. It tried to dodge, but the grenade stuck. Victor grabbed the robot, sure to stay clear of the grenade, and threw it toward the fast-moving ground. It detonated soon after, and was left as scraps of blackened metal.

Cortana spoke over the comms again. "I have an idea of how to get rid of the Flood."

"Well," Emile argued, "if it's anything like Float-Bot there said, I don't want to hear it."

"No," Cortana said, annoyed, "it's nothing like Guilty Spark's plan. This one will get rid of the Flood without destroying everything else." She told them her plan, and there were few arguments. They were countered effectively, and everyone agreed in the end. Master Chief moved into the cockpit of the Pelican.

"Drop us off at the butte, but be ready to take off again."

Foehammer nodded. "Can I ask why, Chief?"

"Of course. We're going to the _Pillar of Autumn._ We're going to destroy Halo."


	3. Chapter 3

Zuka 'Zamamee was ready for them. As the Pelican soared over the ridge, projectile weapons spitting, 'Zamamee and his squad of fourteen Spec Ops Elites dove into their Banshee fliers and took off. The company of Yanme'e followed. They were flying, Grunt-sized insectoids part of the Covenant. There were 215 in a company of them, and this company was armed with needlers. 15 had ben trained to use beam rifles, and they would be a large part of the success that 'Zamamee was sure of. As the Pelican neared, the Yanme'e snipers opened fire. One of their projectile weapons fell off the Pelican, and it lurched sideways. Nine shapes of differing colors dropped out of it, and 'Zamamee recognized the strange armored humans. The Pelican turned back, and a tenth human dropped onto the ridge they had come over. There was a glint, and a projectile slammed into a Banshee's left wing, leaving it to spiral into the ground. Two slow projectiles spiraled upward side-by-side, trailing fire and smoke. They found their own targets, and two more Banshees detonated on the rocks below. Another Banshee was hit by the sniper, and 'Zamamee dove toward the humans.

Victor braced as the Pelican shuddered, and Foehammer called out to them.

"I'm going to have to turn back. They've got fliers coming at us."

Victor nodded and was the first to dive from the Pelican. The Master Chief followed, then Jorge. Victor rolled over, and found that the rest of them had dove all together, except Jun. Jun jumped out when the Pelican was over the ridge, and began firing. Victor locked his armor, then rolled when he hit the ground. Within seconds, the other eight Spartans had done the same. A shadow found its way over the Master Chief, and he looked up and caught the falling weapon. Someone had thrown the Pelican's 50mm turret down.

"Though you might want to use it," Emile said. He then stepped forward, along with Kat, and they fired two rockets at the approaching Banshees. Two fell, and a third from Jun. Only eleven left now. They dove toward the Spartans, and they noticed some Covenant drones behind the Banshees. The Master Chief and Jorge opened fire, cutting through the smaller targets with ease. Victor fired at choice targets, such as drones with snipers or the wing pods of Banshees. He took down three snipers and two Banshees before they opened fire. He spun into cover, and the rest did the same. They were amongst the debris that _Pillar of Autumn_ had carved from the surface of Halo, and there were plenty of rocks and chunks of metal to hide behind. The Banshees neared the Spartans, and five of the remaining nine landed. The Elites got out, activating their personal energy shields and energy swords.

Victor spun back out of cover, shooting at the Elite shield generators. He destroyed one, and Kelly killed the Elite that it belonged to. The Master Chief fired on them, killing one easily, but the other four Banshees had already landed behind them, and the twelve dozen drones were swarming around them as well. Dust and drones and energy created an almost impenetrable film, and nobody could see very far. Victor continued to fire, dropping drones and an Elite, until there was a click. He looked at his ammunition counter. 00. He dropped the magazine, reaching for another, but he was out. He cast aside the DMR, ripping his Magnum from its holster. He killed dozens more fliers, but then found himself without ammunition again. The dust started to settle, and the fliers were growing thin. Victor pulled out his combat knife. As soon as the knife was out of the scabbard, the sun dipped below a mountain and everything was bathed in a cool blue-gray half-light. Victor took advantage of this and his armor's gray color, moving through the fliers and Elites unseen and unheard. He assassinated an Elite, ripping off the shield generator and slashing its throat, and killed a dozen fliers. The chatter of an assault rifle stopped, and Victor found himself wondering if someone had died. It started up again, however, killing the last of the drones. Now, with the drones gone and the dust settled, Victor found only three Elites remaining, standing back-to-back inside a ring of Spartans.

'Zamamee looked over the ring of humans, assessing his situation. They had all run out of projectiles, and were now holding metal blades. As he watched, another human joined the ring. They wouldn't attack, for the Elites' energy swords were far superior to the human weapons. In fact, 'Zamamee still had a beam rifle on his back. He pulled it out now, firing aimlessly. He saw a blue-armored human fall, and one dressed in silver. A gray one stepped forward, though, shearing the rifle in half and snatching away 'Zamamee's energy sword. The other two turned to kill him, but were silenced by those they turned their backs on. 'Zamamee knelt, clicked on his translator, and tried to communicate as a human stepped forward with a blade.

Victor joined the circle, eyeing the last three Elites. They were dressed in black armor, and-

One pulled out a beam rifle and shot into the ring. Many beams were dodged, but Kat fell, across from Victor, and Alex, right next to him. Victor stepped forward, trying to contain his grief, and cut the rifle's barrel off. He then sheathed his knife and took the Elite's energy sword. The other tow were killed, and the last on knelt.

"I..." The Spartans were surprised when the Elite spoke. "I am not successful, and I have killed your human allies. If you must kill me, at least grant me the joy of dying in battle."

Jorge tossed an energy sword to the Elite, and Victor waved the other Spartans back.

"I'll kill it." The Elite activated the sword, and Victor did the same. They charged forward at the same time, blocking and striking, circling each other. Victor slashed the Elite's shield generator, and clicked off his own energy shields. The Elite's sword died, and Victor deactivated his and put it on his thigh. The Elite lunged forward, and Victor dodged its strike. It spun back...

...right into Victor's combat knife.

The Master Chief stepped forward. "You've avenged Kat and Alex well." Victor nodded. None of the Spartans had any ammunition, and they were forced to move on with scavenged weapons. Most picked up needlers. Jun, as he caught up to them, picked up a beam rifle. Victor settled for his energy sword. They moved through the rocks, approaching the _Pillar of Autumn,_ while Master Chief got into a Banshee to imply the Elites' success and let the other Spartans get in undetected. They reached the wreck, and started to move around the Covenant forces. Their comms kicked on.

" _You guys find something to fly off in. I'll handle this."_ The Master Chief said. Lucky for them, a Covenant dropship landed right next to them at that very moment. They killed the troops with ease, then got into the dropship. Kelly took off, and they flew out of the atmosphere. Several minutes went by, and Halo, far behind them now, exploded.

The Master Chief angled the Longsword fighter a bit "upward," and looked around for his Spartans. He didn't see them, only drifting rubble and debris. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a Covenant dropship. He moved the Longsword into a battle position, but then he saw an indicator on his HUD. His Spartans were safe.

Victor saw the Longsword, and activated his FOF tag. The Longsword came back out of a battle position, and anchored to the bottom of the Covenant dropship. The Master Chief climbed in a few moments later.

"Good work, team. The Flood has been destroyed, and the rest of the universe doesn't have to be scrubbed of life."

"Sir?" Kelly began. "The rest of the UNSC didn't make it out. They hijacked a Covenant cruiser with Flood on it, and one of the Marines crashed the ship to contain the infection."

"Then he has done humanity well." Master Chief saluted. He saluted Carter, Kat and Alex. He saluted the marine who would risk the lives of one ship full of UNSC in order to save the rest of humanity from the Flood. He saluted those who fell before, during and after the battles on Halo. And he surprised himself when he realized he was saluting the Elite who managed to kill two Spartans and lived long enough he could have told the tale. Though they all grieved, most of the Spartans smiled beneath their helmets, for the Flood was gone, and humanity was safe.

For now.


End file.
